was he from tennessee? >> guest: originally from alabama but he was part of that lot migration that went to detroit in world war i. >> host: our parents generation shows to show their activism against racism by moving, by migrating and our generation use protest. >> guest: historically for most people who come from the peasant background the route to freedom was not a staging a political movement. you moved toward the freer environment of the city. you moved from the south to the north. that is what most people did. in the process of doing that some of them became politicized. >> host: because they expected things to be markedly different in the north. they didn't think racism existed in the north. >> guest: in the north they are not going to be murdered for taking a stand. and so in a relatively freer environment they are able to create the conditions for the modern movement. >> host: talk about some of the people of the movement. there is sncc and the clc and the others. who were the people who most move